


Cards Tricks and Tells

by thetiniestnerd



Category: Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Injury, Nonbinary Character, autistic!Tezz, it’s literally just A.J. not knowing Tezz isn’t upset for like a hot minute, like two seconds of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 05:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18004265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetiniestnerd/pseuds/thetiniestnerd
Summary: Tezz gets roped into a game of bullshit, and he ends up learning a lot about how his teammates lie. Which leads to learning a lot more about them when he catches them in lies later on.





	Cards Tricks and Tells

**Author's Note:**

> So this isn't the most confident or happy I've been with a fic upon posting it, but I'm happy enough to post it. Hope it lives up to the original idea, which was just "Tezz learns everyone's tells from playing bullshit and figures out that A.J. is in love with him".

Tezz enjoyed the down time available to him the best he could. Usually, he spent his time researching, which he enjoyed maybe a little too much. The others had much more varied ideas of fun.

Which was how Tezz got pulled into a game of cards one afternoon. Everyone was sitting around the dining table, which was a feat for all eleven of them.

“I don’t really know any card games,” Zoom declared. He was half-perched on Vert’s lap, though he kept fidgeting. 

“That’s fine,” Jax replied. “We’ll play something easier.”

“Can you  _ please _ sit still?” Vert sighed. Zoom was still trying to settle in his lap. 

“Nope!” Zoom chirped. “I’m gay!”

Vert sighed heavily. Despite his protests, Zoom settled down and propped his chin up on one hand. 

“I also don’t know card games,” Tezz said. 

“That’s okay!” A.J. exclaimed in that overly-friendly way of his. “We’ll teach ya.”

“We should play bullshit,” Spinner said, slamming his hands down on the table. 

“What’s bullshit?” Zoom asked.

“You!” Spinner shouted, pointing at Zoom. “Hah! Gotcha!” Zoom rolled his eyes and sighed. 

“It’s a game where you go around and you have to put down a card based on the numerical order, and if you don’t have the one you’re supposed to put down, you lie,” Sherman explained. 

“Oooooh, you mean like cheat?” A.J. asked. 

“Yeah, but we call it bullshit cause it’s funnier,” Spinner said. 

“Or because you’re twelve,” Zoom joked. 

“Fuck off.”

“Make me, bitch.” Vert sighed and dropped his head to Zoom’s shoulder. Zoom just laughed. 

“We probably need two decks,” Vert said. “I have a bag of combined decks in that drawer.” He jerked his chin to the storage drawers under the TV. Sherman got up and went to root through the drawers. “There should be a bag with two decks and a bag with three.” 

He came back with a large freezer bag full of cards. “I could only find the bag with three,” he said as he set them down. They landed with a soft thunk. 

“That’s fine,” Vert replied. Sherman started dealing out the cards evenly between everyone. 

“How do we win again?” Stanford asked. He was frowning at his cards.

“You have to get rid of all your cards,” Agura replied softly. She sat next to Stanford, and she was slowly sorting her cards out into some particular order. 

“Yeah, and if someone calls you out on a lie, one of you has to pick up all the cards in the pile,” Spinner added. 

“Wait, what?” Tezz mumbled. 

“Basically, if you think someone lied, you say ‘bullshit’,” Sherman explained. “If they were lying, they pick up all the cards. But if they weren’t, lying, you pick them up.”

Tezz nodded. “So… why don’t you just stay quiet?”

Sherman shrugged. “You don’t want anyone else to win.” Tezz nodded again and everyone looked to Sherman. 

“Who starts?” Viv asked. She sat to Sherman’s left, and was leaning her head against his bicep. 

“You should, since I dealt.”

Viv nodded and pulled out two cards. “Two aces,” she declared. 

“One two,” Sun said, placing her card on top of Viv’s. The pile, despite being three cards, was already a mess. 

“One three,” Spinner added.

“Bullshit,” Sherman declared, without looking up from his cards. 

Spinner sighed and pulled all the cards towards him. “I hate you.” Sherman just nodded. 

“Three fours,” Jax declared. They looked around the circle, as though daring anyone to take the cards. 

“One five,” Stanford said. 

“Six,” Agura said. 

“Five sevens,” A.J. declared, grinning. 

“You’re lying,” Tezz declared, eyes narrowed. There was no way, statistically, that he had five of the twelve sevens in play.

A.J. grinned wider and flipped the cards he’d put down over. All of them were sevens. Tezz frowned. A.J. nudged the card pile towards him and he took it grudgingly. “It was statistically unlikely,” Tezz huffed. 

Jax, as it turned out, hadn’t been lying, and neither had Stanford. Agura, however, had lied. She’d put down a king. 

“Agura lied,” Tezz said.

“Once someone else goes, you can’t call bullshit on the person before them,” she explained. 

Tezz nodded thoughtfully. He sorted his cards quickly and pulled out his three eights. No one questioned his cards, nor did they question Vert’s nines or Zoom’s tens. Sherman put down a jack, which Spinner called bullshit on. It was a two, and Sherman took the pile with a frown and a glare towards Spinner. 

“I think I understand now,” Tezz declared. The game wasn’t as much about numbers as it was about knowing when others were lying. Naturally, that meant he had to learn the others’ tells.

He watched Viv’s expression as she put down her cards. Her expression didn’t shift at all, or at least not as far as Tezz could tell. 

Tezz continued to watch his teammates as they put down their cards. He didn’t call anyone out on their cards, but he did pay attention to when the others accused someone. Stanford’s was the first tick he figured out. His eyebrow twitched just slightly as he moved to put his cards down. No one else seemed to notice this, or called him out, but he hadn’t done it the last two turns. Tezz made a mental note. 

The game kept going around and around the table. Tezz wound up with a lot of cards; he wasn’t a very good liar. He did notice that Stanford’s eyebrow twitched again on another turn, and that time he was called out by Spinner. He had, in fact, been lying.  _ Interesting _ .

Agura won the first game. Zoom was only one card behind, and he pouted when her last card wasn’t a lie. Tezz found himself smiling and laughing along with the team too; an added bonus to learning how the lied. 

“Wanna play another round?” Vert asked. He was looking mostly to Tezz. He nodded. 

“Here,” Jax said, holding out their hand. “I’ll deal this time.” Sherman slid the pile of cards he’d been amassing to them. Jax tidied and shuffled the pile effortlessly and dealt them out to everyone. 

After a minute of everyone sorting out their hands, Stanford started. “Two aces,” he declared. His eyebrow twitched.

“Bullshit,” Tezz said. Stanford grumbled and took his cards back. 

“Way to go Tezz,” Zoom said, grinning. 

“Lucky,” Stanford huffed, pouting. 

“Two twos,” Agura declared, smiling. Stanford frowned at her, but she just poked the tip of her tongue out at him. 

“Five threes!” A.J. exclaimed, slapping down his cards. Tezz peered curiously at his face for a second. He couldn’t find a tell, and he definitely didn’t want five extra cards, even if he did want to get A.J. back for fooling him once already.

“One four,” Tezz said. 

“Three fives,” Vert declared. He shifted in his seat just a little bit, shuffling Zoom so he sat more centered in his lap. 

“Five sixes,” Zoom said, giggling. He was leaning back against Vert more, nuzzling the side of his head. 

_ Gross _ .

“Bullshit,” Agura called. 

Zoom leaned forwards with a wide grin and flipped the cards over. They were all sixes. 

“Motherfucker,” Agura grumbled, pulling the pile towards her. She sighed heavily and re-sorted her hand. 

“Nope!” Zoom teased back happily. 

“Two sevens,” Sherman declared. Spinner stared at him, eyes dramatically wide. Sherman glared back. 

Viv shook her head. “Four eights.” The brothers broke eye contact as if nothing had happened. 

Sun placed five cards. Tezz noticed a tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth. “Bullshit,” he said. 

Sun groaned and reached across the table to the pile. “I hate you so much right now.”

“I know,” Tezz replied, smirking. 

As the game continued, Tezz shifted his focus from one team member to the next. He found that, after a few rounds of play, he could see when they were acting differently. Idly, he wondered how the others didn’t notice these things. They weren’t hard to spot. Sun’s mouth twitched at the corners; Stanford’s eyebrow twitched; Zoom shuffled his feet around under the table as if he was trying to hide some other, worse tell; Vert fidgeted with his communicator leading up to his turn or got more snuggly with Zoom; the brothers and Agura all looked like they were fighting back frowns; Viv tended to bite the inside of her cheek; Jax became less expressive, like they were trying to maintain perfect neutrality, which only looked more odd; and A.J.’s ears flushed red. 

As they played, and he got better at spotting the other’s tells, Tezz got more confident. He started calling out the others more often, and with near-perfect accuracy. He found himself smiling at the growing looks of shock on his teammates’ faces. He won one game, but he couldn’t win any others. Knowing when the others were lying didn’t help him lie better. 

“You’re too good at this,” Zoom declared after the sixth game they’d played. He was pointing accusingly at Tezz and leaning back against Vert’s chest, pouting. 

Vert slipped an arm around Zoom’s waist and hooked his chin over his shoulder. “I’m sure it was just beginner’s luck, babe.”

“Actually,” Tezz said, still smirking. “It’s scientific.”

Stanford groaned dramatically. “Of  _ course _ you’d say that. Bloody scientific  _ nonsense _ .”

“It’s merely psychology, Stanford,” Tezz pointed out. The others had started to disperse, the games apparently over. 

Stanford huffed at the psychology comment, rolling his eyes. “ _ Please _ . You’re just saying that because you don’t want to admit you got lucky.”

“Don’t think Tezz is the one of us getting lucky, Stanford,” Spinner joked. Tezz shot him an unamused look. Spinner just shrugged and walked off.

Tezz walked towards the elevator down to the Hub, frowning. He wondered why the team would deny the effects of psychology and analysis on such a game when it was so obvious.

* * *

Tezz spent the next hour or so on his own in the Hub, researching the seismic patterns from the last zone they’d been in. It was a fascinating ecosystem, and he hadn’t been able to stop wondering about it. 

He was deep in the pattern analysis when the Hub alarm went off. Sighing, he closed out the Sentient monitors and hurried over to the Splitwire. He pulled on his shocksuit, which he kept in the Splitwire most of the time since he was always researching. He was just getting his jacket zipped up as the others started appearing. He pulled his shock glove on and slid into the driver’s seat of the Splitwire. The others, all dressed or at least mostly dressed in their shocksuits already, rushed to their vehicles. 

Tezz raced out of the Hub with the others, falling in near the front of the pack. “What’s the deal, Sage?” Vert asked over the comms. 

“This zone looks like a scrapyard or factory of sorts,” she replied. “Tezz could hear the faint sounds of screens flying out and multiplying around her as she took in the information. “It would appear that it was once used to build some sort of weaponry. I am unsure what exactly it is, or who used it.”

“Any signs of life?” Sherman asked. 

“I am not sure,” Sage declared. 

“We’ve got this,” Vert replied easily. The storm shock loomed just ahead. “Alright team, full speed ahead!”

The line of vehicles shot through the storm shock. They were deposited on the other side in front of what looked like an old warehouse. The sky over the zone was a deep violet, and Tezz could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. He pulled up a screen in the Splitwire and booted up a program to track the thunderstorm. The clouds to the north were ominously dark. It wouldn’t do to be caught off guard by the storm and have their systems go down without a plan or warning. 

“What’re we looking for here?” Agura asked. Tezz could see her peering around at the rooftops nearby. 

“A battle key,” Sage replied. 

“Finally,” Stanford sighed. “A simple mission.”

A loud crack of thunder punctuated his words. Tezz could hear Stanford’s startled yelp crackle over the comms. The others laughed. 

“Don’t jinx it, dude,” Zoom said.

“Alright team, let’s split up and find this key,” Vert called. “Zoom, Agura, get up high and see if you can see anything. The rest of us are gonna split in two groups and tackle this main road.” Tezz watched Vert jerk his chin at the road in front of them that ran from the north of the zone to the south. “I’ll take the brothers, Sun, and Stanford with me to the north. Tezz, A.J., Viv, and Jax, you guys head south. Let’s move!”

Tezz shot forwards alongside Viv and Jax, watching in his mirror as A.J. followed behind them to watch their backs. “Setting up a scan for the key,” Tezz declared. Thunder cracked again, this time registering a high level of feedback in Tezz’s systems. “This storm is causing issues for our equipment. It may prevent communications.”

“Thanks, Tezz,” Vert replied. “ If we lose comms, everyone meet back at that warehouse, okay? And use your flares if you’re in distress.”

The others all called out in reply. Tezz eyed his tracking screen and the storm tests again, then glanced to the sky. The clouds seemed to be growing heavier by the minute. 

“No sign of the key so far,” Viv called. “We might have to spread out up ahead. Looks like the road splits.” They were nearing the end of the southern-facing part of the road. It split left and right, while directly in front of them was an old warehouse full of scrap metal. It didn’t look like there was even enough space in the warehouse to get a vehicle in. Tezz hoped someone wouldn’t have to climb through a building like that to get the key. 

“I’ll take left,” Jax offered.

“I’ll go with them,” Viv said. “You two head right and see what’s up there. Meet back here if we dead-end?”

“Sure thing!” A.J. replied. Tezz could  _ hear _ the sugar-sweet smile on his face. 

Tezz split off from the others, slowing slightly to let A.J. catch up. The Gearslammer was probably the slowest of the vehicles on the team, though usually they didn’t need to be quite so close for scouting. Tezz just didn’t want to risk separation in the storm. 

“You seen anything that looks like the key on your scan?” A.J. asked over the close-range frequency. 

Tezz frowned at his screen. He was getting a few small pings, but they didn’t look like the right kind of energy signature to be the key. They were probably closer to magnetized metal left over from whatever the zone used to be used for. His screens kept flickering too, which made the search all the more annoying. “Not yet,” he sighed. The two crept along the road, looking into the gaps between piles of scrap and into the buildings that dotted the landscape. Nothing of interest rose up, other than the cracks of thunder that grew louder and more frequent as they moved. 

The road curved south again after a few minutes. As the two reached the corner, Agura’s voice rang clear over the comms. “I found the key, but there’s some kind of freaky robot guarding it!”

“Send off your coordinates!” Vert ordered. Tezz could hear engines revving over the comms. Her ping came from the north. Tezz swung the Splitwire around and raced off back towards the main road, checking in his mirror again to make sure A.J. was right behind him. 

Jax and Viv were ahead of them as they raced back along the road and past the warehouse, into the battle and the growing storm. Tezz stayed level with A.J. until they rounded a corner and found the robot in question. It was about as tall as the two-storey warehouses, and it appeared to be an amalgamation of scrap held together somehow and brought to life by the battle key on what looked like its head. At least, it seemed like the key was the source of its power, given the way the energy flowed through it on Tezz’s screens. 

“We need to knock the key off of it!” Tezz called. “The key is what is providing it with power!”

Stanford immediately turned to face the thing and took aim with his sonic cannons. “On it!” He fired at the beast, but it swung its arm in the way of the blast. Chunks of scrap fell around them, narrowly missing the Reverb. Stanford screamed and sped off as the robot’s other arm came careening down on the spot where he’d been parked. 

“That didn’t work,” Agura said flatly. 

“No shit!” Stanford cried. “What now?”

“We need to distract it!” Sherman said. “Stanford has to be able to shoot it without it noticing.”

“On it!” Zoom called. He was driving on a thick chunk of metal that was higher up than the road, and he took off from it to fly around the robot’s face. Tezz fired off a ball of electricity, hoping that it would at least serve as a distraction. 

What actually happened was, by sheer bad luck, Tezz opened up his cannon at the same time that a lightning strike happened. His cannon became a lightning rod, drawing the strike to the Splitwire. Everything flashed white for a moment as Tezz’s vehicle was thrown to the side. He clearly made impact with something; he could tell from the jarring sensation of his forehead smacking off the steering wheel. 

It took a moment for the light to fade from his eyes and the ringing to leave his ears, but by the time it had, Tezz found himself being pulled hastily out of the Splitwire. He stumbled and blinked in the chaos, still trying to sort out the sounds around him from the sounds in his head. A.J. was staring up at him, a hand to his head and his eyes wide and damp. Tezz blinked a few times.

“Are you okay?” A.J. asked. His words were rushed and loud, and his hand against Tezz’s forehead seemed to shake, but then, so did his vision.

“I think I’m alright,” Tezz replied. He looked around for the robot. Surely it was about to crush them, seeing as they were standing out in the open. 

“The lightning knocked it down,” A.J. explained. “Zoom’s got the key. Are you sure you’re okay? Your head’s bleeding.”

Tezz frowned and touched the tips of his fingers to his forehead. Pain shot through his head and he winced, pulling his hand back to find that he was indeed bleeding. “Huh.” He wasn’t sure what else to say. He was dizzy and in pain, but overall he was mostly alright. He probably just needed a bandage from Sage and some rest. He was fairly certain that the dizziness was a mild concussion.

Tezz turned at the sound of the others behind him, and watched as the Buster pulled the Splitwire out of where it’d been wedged in a crack in a concrete wall. It was beaten up and scratched, but nothing was falling off. Though he was reasonably sure that he wouldn’t want to drive it even if the others would allow it, which they certainly wouldn’t. Who knew what that amount of power had done to the systems. 

“Here, c’mon, let’s get something for your head,” A.J. said. He took Tezz by the elbow before he could say anything and dragged him over to the Reverb. Tezz and Stanford both had first aid kits in their cars since they had the space. Stanford was already leaning out of the car with a wad of gauze in his hand, which A.J. took and positioned over the wound for Tezz before getting him to hold it there. 

“You alright, love?” Stanford asked. He had an odd expression on his face as he watched A.J. and Tezz. 

“I believe I am mildly concussed, but otherwise yes,” Tezz replied. 

Stanford snorted, but he was smiling. “Just don’t throw up in my car, yeah?” Tezz rolled his eyes and went around the other side of the car, taking the hand up that A.J. offered him to get in as he held the bandage to his head. 

The drive back to the Hub was thankfully uneventful, and Sage met them in the Hub when they got back. Tezz stood up carefully in the Reverb, trying not to wobble as his vision tilted slightly. He was able to get himself out of the car by sliding off it, and by the time his feet hit the ground the others were all out of their vehicles and A.J. was there to offer a steadying hand. The others had gathered around their vehicles, but Tezz didn’t pay them any mind. Sage was waiting to check on him. A.J. walked him over to her. Tezz was thankful for the steadying hand as his vision shifted and went out of focus over and over. Sage’s hands replaced A.J.’s when he got close to her, and she guided him to sit in a stool she’d dragged out of the lab. 

Tezz shut out the rest of the room as Sage looked over his injury. “Thankfully your head wound isn’t extensive,” she said. “Head wounds tend to bleed more dramatically than one might think. Though you do seem to have a concussion.” She turned and produced a bandage from a first aid kit. She bandaged up his forehead and smiled. “You should rest for the night, and I’d advise you not to go into any zones tomorrow. You’re fine otherwise though.”

Tezz nodded and slid off the stool. “Thank you.” The others had waited by their vehicles as Sage had been checking him, and Tezz let himself fall into step with them as they all made their way upstairs. 

“Good thing you had your knight in shining armour to rescue you, hey Tezz?” Spinner teased. Tezz cocked his head at him.

“What?”

“You know, a knight in shining armour? The guy who rides in and saves the princess and rides off with her into the sunset?”

Tezz just looked at him until he sighed. 

“Look, all I’m saying is A.J. looks like he’s ready to ride off into the sunset any time now.”

“Spinner, c’mon,” Sherman groaned. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Awe c’mon, bro!” Spinner exclaimed. “They’re in  _ wuv _ !”

“No, we’re not,” A.J. said. He was frowning and his eyebrows were furrowed. Tezz would have thought he was just annoyed, if it weren’t for the fact that his ears were turning bright red.  _ He’s… lying? _

“Bullshit,” Tezz said. 

The whole team fell silent as they all stared at Tezz. It was Spinner who broke the silence when he burst out laughing.

“Man, I forgot you were concussed for a second! Good one Tezz!” The others joined in.

Vert clapped Tezz on the shoulder, brows furrowed. “You should probably get some rest, man.”

Tezz huffed and stalked past the group towards his room. What did they know about what he was saying? A.J. was lying about being in love; Tezz knew his tells. They were too ignorant to see it, but he was right. 

Tezz threw the door to his and A.J.’s room and was met with a wave of cold, cold air. He sighed in relief and let the door fall shut behind him. With no lights except for the charging lights off their laptops, Tezz navigated his way over to his bed and sat down. 

Alone in the dark, mostly silent room, Tezz thought back on all the things he knew about romance and attraction. It wasn’t much; a lot of what he’d learned came from the other couples on the team. He knew he wasn’t really interested in sex, and that that was a thing with a name. But he wasn’t quite sure about romance. He’d never thought like that  _ before _ , but the more he wondered about A.J. and the possibility of A.J. being in love with him, the more Tezz wanted it to be true. 

The question now was what to do about it. 

Tezz was saved from wondering where A.J. was when he heard the door opening. A.J. came in cautiously, poking his head around the door to look at Tezz. “Hey,” he said softly. 

“Hi,” Tezz replied, sitting up a little straighter. A.J. shut the door behind him, but he didn’t move into the room at first. 

“How ya feeling?” He asked. His voice was softer and wobblier than usual, like he was fighting to get his words out.

“Better than in the zone,” Tezz replied. “I…” He trailed off. What did he want to say? He didn’t even know  _ how _ to talk about this sort of thing, let alone what words to use. 

A.J. sighed softly, leaning back against the door. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I- I didn’t wanna make you uncomfortable. I should’ve… I dunno. I should’ve been less intense. I’m. I’m sorry.” 

Tezz cocked his head at him. “ I don’t understand?”

A.J. pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He let out a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry.” His voice came out weak and broken. 

_ Oh. _ Tezz realized.  _ He thinks I’m upset _ .

Tezz stood quickly - a little too quickly - and hurried over to A.J. before he could run off. “I’m not upset,” Tezz said hurriedly. He took A.J.’s hands from his face and held them between their bodies. “A.J., I-” Tezz found himself caught off guard by the look in A.J.’s eyes. He couldn’t find his words suddenly, couldn’t fathom the right ones to say to convey all the sudden feelings overwhelming him.

So instead, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to A.J.’s lips. 

The kiss only lasted a second or two, but it left A.J. blinking up at Tezz wordlessly. “I’m not upset about your feelings,” Tezz breathed. “Quite the opposite, actually.”

A.J. grinned widely and pulled Tezz into a fierce hug. Tezz couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips or the fact that he wanted to hug A.J. back. Tezz dropped his head carefully to A.J.’s shoulder. Maybe he could start to understand why the others liked to hold each other and be held so much, if it felt like this. 

A.J. sighed happily against Tezz’s chest. “How’d you know?” He asked softly. 

“Your ears turn red when you lie,” Tezz replied.

A.J. pulled back enough to cock his head at Tezz. “What?”

“I found out when we were playing cards. I know the others’ tells as well.”

A.J. laughed and shook his head fondly. “Man, teaching you card games was a dangerous thing, huh?”

Tezz smiled down at him and leaned in for another kiss. “It would seem so.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought?


End file.
